New Brighton State Beach Day 2

We had a pretty exciting night last night, even if we didn’t know it! John has been eating instant oatmeal packets for breakfast (those who know me, know I only have coffee). Anyway, we are just about out of those so he opted for his favorite Honey Nut Cheerios instead and to save the rest of the oatmeal for tomorrow morning. He went to the Jeep to get the Cheerios and realized he left the windows open last night. Whoops! We had visitors! Little raccoon paws prints now adorn our vehicle, the seats, and who knows where else! They were certainly busy. It appears they greatly enjoyed his Honey Nut Cheerios along with a packet of dog food kibble we keep in the glove box. Crafty little varmints! Thankfully they didn’t decide to “do” anything else and the Jeep smells just fine inside. I’m also pleasantly surprised they didn’t scratch the paint on the outside getting in and out. Tony was livid sniffing at their aftermath! After putting everything back in the glove box and general straightening up, it was eggs for breakfast! Thankfully, we had no trouble getting this campsite again today. We spent a relaxing “last day” here. We didn’t see the sun and from the weather reports it looks safe to head home tomorrow! No more triple digit temperatures in site for the Central Valley.

Paw Prints

No More Honey Nut Cheerios!

Camping Meal Review: I try to keep a few nonperishable meals in the trailer in case of delay or refrigerator failure. We tried this one today, just to use it up as the “use before” date was approaching. The flavor was decent but since it included “beef” one would wonder “where’s the beef”? I think I will try other options before using this again. One could have canned chicken or tuna and Hamburger Helper. It would have been better and more protein as well.

New Brighten Beach State Campground

We left our pitiful little site in Half Moon Bay today about 9:30a. We decided we would try to get into New Brighton, if they were full we would try Sunset Beach, and finally we would just head home if we couldn’t secure something in either of those places. It was a lovely and uneventful drive down Hwy 1. There are so many lovely beaches. I wonder why it is not developed? Mostly what you see is farm land. Oh my, all the pumpkins in fields everywhere! We got to New Brighton about 11a. Apparently the rule is you can leave your name and license plate number, return at 2p,  if anything is available your name will be called in order and you will get a spot if there is availability. Surprisingly, they were able to accommodate the approximately 12 families waiting for a spot with a few spots to spare! As it is so often with the Eash Factor, we could barely get in the site #69 that we first chose. It was so slanted John had to put up most of our blocks to even come close to leveling the trailer. It looked dangerous to me and we tried a different approach, which was barely tolerable. About that time the camp host came by and told us this campsite was really not conducive to a trailer (no kidding!) so as nice as the rest of the site was, he called and got us set up for another site #111. So now we gather the few things we had out and head to campsite #111. It was an “okay” site but for sure we will need to leave tomorrow as it is booked for tomorrow night. If we want to move again to site #2 we have a chance of getting it for two nights. Are you kidding? Of course we have not unhitched and all it has taken is time… so off to #2. A mere 1.5 hours after checking in we are safe and secure in a site. That’s the way it goes sometimes! After the set up we decided to go into town for a hamburger. The camp host suggested Betty’s Burgers and we were not disappointed. John loved their garlic fries. Back to camp after stopping at several overlooks in Capitola and a walk on the beach again. As we drove in the campsite we saw 3 deer by the Visitor Center. It was a nice day but we are tired now.

Capitola

Deer At New Brighton

Leaving Wright’s Beach

Today we had a nice adventure as we drove down Hwy 1 from Bodega Bay. We hoped to stay near the Point Reyes Lighthouse over night and continue up Hwy 1 tomorrow. However, since we made not plans, the vagabonds we are, there were no sites to even camp near the lighthouse. I decided I didn’t want to go up inside it bad enough to drive 35 miles each way to do so. We continued down Hwy 1. What fantastic views, even if it is a bit of “white knuckle” drive. Tomales Bay, Bolinas Lagoon, then Stinson Beach… All lovely, but on we went. Finally we were almost to where Hwy 1 joins Hwy 101! We joined there just a few miles before the Golden Gate Bridge. We thought about trying to stay at Marin Headlands then we read no pets were allowed and one needed a reservation far in advance, nix that idea too! However, we did have some fantastic views of the city. Unfortunately there was no place to park until we found this one area and we were able to get this nice photo shown below. On we went through San Francisco, I was surprised how little traffic there was. We opted to head to Half Moon Bay tonight in hopes that the State Campground might have some availability. No such luck but we were fortunate to find a spot available at Half Moon Bay RV and Campground. It is not much and expensive, but a place stop, eat our dinner and head south tomorrow.

Along Hwy 1

Bolinas Lagoon

Stinson Beach

The Casita and The Golden Gate

Crossing the Golden Gate

Wright’s Beach Day 7

Today when we went to take our shower at Bodega Dunes we saw a fox! It was much too fast to get a photo as it disappeared into the bushes and trees on the hillside. It had a somewhat fluffy reddish tail, so I guess it was a red fox. The fox we saw earlier this year up at the Veterans Home in Yountville looked like a gray fox to me. However, when I tried to figure that out with information online, it said there are very few gray foxes left in CA. There was even an article stating the excitement of finding a family of them after so many years of not being seen anywhere. Anyway, a fox, gray or red…we saw one today! The sun didn’t make an appearance until afternoon today and then it was only momentary. It has been colder both last night and today. Maybe we’ll use the heater tonight. We had our nice steak lunch today at camp. After that we played cards and then went in search of the internet! We go my hotspot turned on and sat on a bluff checking email, a quick look at Facebook, and posted the blog for the last 6 days. We looked around Bodega Bay a little bit, bought some more clam chowder, and headed back to camp. We couldn’t even see the sunset due to the dense fog. In fact, we couldn’t even see the water! It wasn’t all that cold until the sun went down. I imagine we will break camp in drippy fog tomorrow morning!

Lunch

No “Sun” in our Sunset Tonight

Wright’s Beach Day 6

We woke up to fog this morning, no sun at all. However, it is not cold. Because of the fog John ate breakfast inside. It is nice we have that option with the little table we can set up simply between the beds. It’s great for playing cards when it is windy too! It was a relaxing day but I must admit I am missing contact to the outside world. It didn’t seem prudent to pick today to go into town since it is Saturday and there are a lot more people on the beach as well. The morning walk was still pretty nice and secluded. It is abandoned enough that Tony can enjoy some quality time off his leash, he loves it. The rock Janice and I saw with all the mussels on it was now surround by water. John and I have both finished 3 books so far!

Wright’s Beach Day 5

This morning’s treat was dolphins! I could hardly believe my eyes! I guess I didn’t think there are dolphins in this cold water. John and Tony had left for the beach already while I did a little “housework” so I did my best to run down to the beach so they could see them as well. We did see them several times, what a treat, even if my photos are not so great! We spent the remainder of the day relaxing, fixing our meals, reading, playing cards, plus waiting and watching for more dolphins! There must be a lot of fish in the water here as the birds were at it again tonight. Quite a show. Sadly we have realized how out of shape we are - the approximate 4 miles we walked on Wednesday made our calves sore!!! We need to get back to the gym!

Dolphins

Another Evening Feeding Frenzy

Wright’s Beach Day 4

Instead of using up the water in our trailer we went over to Bodega Dunes Campground and used the showers there. This was the plan as there are no showers at Wright’s Beach. As we were leaving there we saw a small buck. He was pretty leery of us but I did get a partial photograph. After doing that we prepared for Mom and Janice’s arrival. I wanted to get a few appetizer items in addition to the clam chowder we got at the Tides. We first went to Diekmann’s Market and then to the Tides fish market section. These are the only two places to buy items in town. Remember town is just 900+ people! Anyway, we came back and got things ready for Mom and Janice. We were so happy to see them roll in right about noon. We enjoyed our meal together. Then Mom rested and Janice and I took a nice walk on the beach. It was a lovely day. We hated to see them leave. It did cool off a lot after the sun went down. Sadly it took Mom and Janice over 2 hours to get back to Mom’s with a lot of traffic!

Wright’s Beach Day 3

Today we went to Fort Ross. After John ate his breakfast and I packed our lunch we were set to go. It is only 12-14 miles but it took a while. There is road work going on with a stop like set up so one has to wait for the one way traffic. It was a nice drive, it is sunny and nice today. The weather is perfect. There is a nice Visitor Center at the Fort. It has many displays and a short, continuous running movie about the fort and surrounding area. From the Visitor Center it is a short walk to the fort itself. There is a nice little numbered map to explain what you are looking at. Only one of the buildings is still an original, it still has a couple apple trees next to it as well. Most of the buildings were relocated to the Sacramento area when John Sutter bought the fort before it became an Historical Landmark. We had a nice visit there. It was quite interesting and I am glad it is preserved. Apparently they have Russian Festivals here, maybe once a year, I'm not sure. No dogs allowed but it was nice and cool so Tony was fine in his kennel in the car. We set him free and had our lunch on one of the many picnic tables provided. After our lunch we headed south toward our campsite. We took a short drive to the Vista Point and took the 1 mile loop walk. We thought Tony would be happy to walk but he seemed hot and rested in the shade at every opportunity. We hoped to have phone service in Jenner, but that was not the case. We drove on to Goat Rock and down to the beach parking. We saw another even larger feeding frenzy on this beach. The Pelicans were going crazy, there must have been 100’s of them. I tried to take a video but I don't really know how to use that feature on my new camera. I can take the video and play it on the camera but I am unable to use it after that. There is a learning curve with anything new. We walked around there for a little while then headed south again. We called Mom just before driving down to our campsite. The reception was pretty good. Another beautiful sunset, this time with a little bit of a rainbow in the clouds as well.

Original Building

Goat Rock

A Rainbow in the Clouds

Our Camping Buddy

Wright’s Beach Day 2

We had a cozy night in the trailer, no need for the heater at all. Early on it was foggy but sun was out by 7:30a with lovely views from our bed! We had a delightful and relaxing day here at camp. What a luxury to sit and lie around reading all day. The views were even impressive when the fog rolled in. It was much cooler tonight than it was last night. We decided to forego the walk to the beach for the sunset since the wind was blowing so hard. There is another Casita in the campground tonight.

Who wants more than this view for breakfast?

Pelican Feeding Frenzy

Arriving to Wright’s Beach

After taking Mom to Vallejo for an acupuncture treatment we were on our way to the coast. This is a coastline of my childhood but it looks quite different from what I remember, that’s really no surprise! Our drive over was uneventful. It is wise to follow the standard route. John took us on a “shortcut” that was fine – paved road, in the very loose sense of the word – quite bumpy and rough, but we made it just fine. Our campsite (#8 at Wright’s Beach) is lovely. The sites are large with just a few bushes or trees in between but they are large sites with a table and a fire ring. We don’t have shade in our site and it was pretty warm when we arrived but there was a breeze so it felt quite nice. We have a panoramic view of the beach from our campsite. After setting up and relaxing a little bit we drove back to Bodega Bay and out to Bodega Head. How things have changed. It is still a small community but much, much larger than it used to be. I am surprised by all the boats in the marina, a very large marina. I called Mom from Bodega Head so she knows we have limited phone service and won’t worry about us. We headed back to town, John is hungry so we want to find a place outdoors so we can take Tony and not leave him in the car. The Tides has a small bar area with an unexciting outdoor area. I opted for the crab sliders and John had clam chowder and garlic fries. The young men sitting at the very edge of the railing had seagulls at their shoulders watching every bite! The waiter warned them not to leave their food for one second or it would be gone. The food was quite good, though the service was a little slow. I wonder why they don’t get better reviews. Technically we were “in the bar” though, not the restaurant. They did have fresh crab in the fish market inside. It was from Oregon and $35.98 a pound. I guess we won’t be having a crab feed any time soon. After dinner we went across the road to the only gas station we have seen to fill our gas can for the generator. Gas is $3.44 a gallon. Hard to believe since a friend of mine paid $2.49 in Maui last week! After we got back to camp we took a nice walk on the beach to see the sunset. The water is treacherous. In fact, the camp host said not to even get near it as they have had rogue waves and severe under toes. It certainly is churning and that is like I remember it being from my childhood. There were pelicans dipping for fish and a couple of seals out there too. Back at camp we sat outside for just a little while and then I got cold! What a great feeling! Time to go inside and read until bedtime.

Our Campsite

 

Sunset

About phone service: Apparently there is intermittent phone service here in our campsite, more OFF than ON. However, I noticed there was service this morning and I sent a quick email to Janice. By the time I tried to send a second email there was no further service. I can write a short email on my phone, leave it in my outbox and when service comes up again it will send it. Not very reliable! However, it also bring mail to my inbox that way so I will check a couple times a day. 

Where To Eat?

I thought when Janice and Mom came to visit us at Wright’s Beach we would take them to the Tides to eat. However, the reviews are poor! So I am looking for a new place. Will it be The Sandpiper or maybe The Blue Water Bistro or should it be the The Spud Point Crab Company or even The Birds Cafe? By the way, I ordered and we watched “The Birds” the other day so we would have the full effect of our visit!!! Decisions, decisions about dining!!! Maybe a bottle of red wine, cheese, and French bread? We’ll see! Anyway, I am excited to see some of these places from my childhood along the coast, which I have not seen for years.